Here it is folks, the poster-child of military overspending (we spend more money on our military than the next 18 countries combined, or something in that area). It's estimated that over $50 billion in taxpayer money will be spent on this. True, it takes off like a helicopter and flies like an airplane, but it's a sitting duck while the rotors are tilting. This is probably going on a ton of Top Ten Worst Aircrafts lists simply because of its notoriety.

WHOO. These birds are SWEEEEET! I was at a water park and saw one fly over, it was so noisy! Everyone around me looked up and said "Oh my god! What IS that?" and I leaned over to my dad and went "PFFT. They know nothing. That's an Osprey " They're pretty awesome in flight. Wish I could have seen it longer though. It just kinda flew over, then some trees and buildings got in the way.

OMG it's actually operational!!!! I remember as a kid seeing just such an aircraft about to be operational in the 1970's... but it never seemed to happen... And it seemed such (especially from a geeky childs point of view) a cool idea!!! Awesome... when can we Brits expect to experience them? I've waited since the '70's!!!!!!!!!

Every time I see a picture of one of these, I can't help but get more and more impressed the longer I look at it, they're so surreal in their practical beauty, like something that shouldn't be, like something from the future..

I only caught a glimpse of the Ospery as it thundered off. It was in normal fight configuration and was zipping along at a good pace. XD

Heh. Yeah. Think along the lines of the Chinook helicopter mixed with a heavy turboprop engine thrown in. (yeah, I know the Chinook is a turboshaft powered machine, but you almost never hear the 'standard jet noise', just its rotors).